Bloggers And other Reviews of One Hour Skirmish Wargaming

Derek C. has very kindly sent me links to blogs about OHSW.

I relist them here:

Grid Based Wargaming - Some One Hour Skirmish Wargaming

Dale's Wargames - part 1

Dale's Wargames - part 2

Dale's Wargames - follow up with author :)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amazon reviews:

5.0 out of 5 starsBrilliant refreshing game system

29 October 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

A wargame without dice! That’s going to put a lot of people off, BUT the system using playing cards to generate a means of controlling movement and fire is brilliantly simple. The games are very fast moving, full of action very very entertaining and enjoyable. I have resisted skirmish games for years on the basis of detailed actions and micro management, but this book prompted a rethink and as the author clearly sets out in his design brief it all makes perfect sense. Well worth a try

5.0 out of 5 starsGreat game mechanics and a good read

28 October 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

If like me you like to dabble in 101 different skirmish era's then this is the book for you. I must admit I was a bit disappointed after reading the core mechanics as they seemed just too simplistic and without dice. However I then tried a little game and saw how it all comes together into a full skirmish game, with the slickest system possible. The scenario and era specific rules show the versatility possible and yet everything plays super fast with minimal preparation. Highly recommended!

5.0 out of 5 starsDoes What It Promises

31 December 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

An excellent book that does exactly what it promises. The authors style is funny and relaxed and the diceless system is really interesting - a contender alternative system for my heroclix minis. The layout is very clear and easy to read with lots of practical technical information. The length is just right - anything more would feel a bit much for one hour games.

3.0 out of 5 starsFast and playable but overall a bit disappointing

26 November 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

These rules are quick to learn and they do give a fast and easy game as intended. However, playing still brings up the occasional "how should I do this?" - easy enough to make up something but annoying omissions as the rules are so brief. Although a lot of periods are covered, there's a lack of depth to the rules which make them feel very similar. Scenarios obviously help to add variety, but only a few are included (none generic) and no mechanisms to create more (plenty of empty pages for this ....) These rules would be excellent for short participation games at shows or for introducing new/young players into the hobby. Unfortunately, they do feel a bit bland after a couple of games, with a quite a heavy random element and little depth - probably not suited to heavy use by experienced gamers

1.0 out of 5 starsNot a book but a footnote

6 November 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Even if this book had nothing but one star reviews I would probably buy it because the topic interests me so much. But, having read it, last night, in about half an hour, I had to wonder who on earth it was aimed at. You could find a better and more detailed set of rules in an article in any wargames magazine in any given year. Anyone who owns enough figures and terrain to stage one of these skirmish games must already own at least a dozen sets of rules that are either more realistic or more fun. The book doesn't cover the pre-musket era. This is sheer laziness. The book is only 95 pages and the writing, such as it is, takes up hardly any room on the page. Quite a few pages are blank. There are only five or six scenarios. The author acknowledges that scenarios are the heart and soul of skirmish games and then completely neglects them. He pays tribute to One Hour Wargames by Neil Thomas and tries to explain what made that book so good but he completely misses the point. What made that book so good is that it had at least thirty highly charged scenarios that were playable in any era; and very compact but appropriate rules for every era from ancient to the modern day. That book is the distillation of years of experience and you can tell. This 'sequel', in contrast, reads like it was dashed off in an afternoon by someone who had better things to do. I don't doubt the author's pedigree but the book is simply too casual and too thoughtless. I could explain my reservations about the rules but my review is already longer than the book's introduction, which was going in an interesting direction and then just stopped.

Good Reads

Sep 24, 2018Ted Williams rated it it was amazing

Marvellous set of 'toolbox' rules, which seems to cover most of the periods I am interested in dabbling with.
Everything works though a deck of normal playing cards, and whilst the rules are simple, they are comprehensive enough to cover most things you would need in an average game.

The way the rules are structured and how the cards are used also make it easy to add in any extra bits you might feel are essential .

I really, really like these rules, they might not suit the 'rivet-counters' as there are no extensive tables, wacky dice, or enormous army lists to digest, however they do give a crackingly good game

I also understand there is a stinker of a review of Miniature Wargames by a wargamer who is very dischuffed with me. :)

Probably worth a read before you spend your money. Sometimes, you can learn more about a piece of art from those who hate it than from those who love it.....although the latter is good for writer's egos.

Ah well, one can't be all things to all people.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good Reads Review

 5.00  ·  Rating details ·  2 ratings  ·  1 review
Many wargamers enjoy the challenge of skirmish games where, instead of the strategy of vast armies portrayed by traditional wargames, the focus is on the tactics of a small unit. However, skirmish rules are often so complex that it can take hours of rolling dice, consulting tables and recording data to recreate what would in reality be a fast and furious firefight lasting just minutes. Now these new rules make it possible to recapture the speed and intensity of these actions where every man, and every second, counts. The basic rules are supported by sections which give special rules and scenarios to capture the flavor of a range of different periods, from Napoleonic to Modern Warfare and beyond with Sci-Fi. From the 95th Rifles scouting for Wellington, Western gunfights and WWI trench raids, through WW2 parachute assaults or Special Forces strikes in Afghanistan, or even Space Marines storming a space station, Squad Firefights elegantly simple system allows you to focus on proper tactical decisions rather than rolling buckets of dice or calculating masses of modifiers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have noticed that if an author does something new and different you get either 5 stars, from people who like novelty, and one star, from people who equate it with heresy. I like to strip down systems to their core and scrape the barnacles off and then see what you have left.

One little note. This system took rather longer than an afternoon to develop - ten years in fact. It is a counter-intuitive fact that a simple game takes longer to develop than a complex one. Complexity hides what doesn't work but every single blemish stands out in a simple system.

"Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le
loisir de la faire plus courte." Blaise Pascal, 1657

I remember Fall of the West provoking the same response.

A happy New Year to all - even those who loathe my books.

John Lambshead

Infantrielandungsboot or I-Lighter

I-LIGHTER

The Germans used a small flat-bottomed motorised lighter or boat to move men and supplies around calmish waters - rivers, estuaries, the Baltic and Mediterranean. I-Lighters were particularly active around the Greek Islands.

I modelled these mostly using balsa wood. The original boats were around 15-18 m long so these are small models. They have a small one-barrelled automatic gun, an MG or 20mm cannon, on a mount near the bow.

I-LIGHTER Photo

This is the photo I used as  a template .

These boats were involved in combat with British coastal craft in the Med.

Dutch Plan

I-Lighters were built all over Europe so they probably varied a bit. These plans are from a Dutch workshop. Note the association with Siebel.

3D image

Another take on an I-Lighter.

Underwater Wreck

A wrecked I-Lighter found by divers off Croatia. This photo shows the stem.

The Helm Position

The View Aft

The Bow

Note that the bow is detached from the rest of the hull. Apparently I-Lighters could be disassembled for transport on trains.

You can read more on the Axis History Forum.

Lake Ladoga Patrol Boat

The last I-Lighters were used by the Finns on Lake Ladoga as gun boats with a 57mm gun fitted centrally .



Finnish Gunboat Underway

Out Of The Water

Again, these photos are derived from the Axis History Forum, which is a mine of expert opinion.

Size Comparison

To show how small these craft were, here is one of my scratchbuilt models alongside an S-Boot. Both are 1:300 scale .

Cruel Seas: Kriegsmarine M35 Minelayer

Hellar 1:400 M35/40/43 Minesweepers

The M35 minesweeper was one of the most successful of the Kriegmarine's coastal ships. They were designed to supplement the older minelayers that had soldiered on since WWI. The M40 was a simplified mass production version and the M43 an improved larger vessel. Two hundred and eighteen were launched, of which around 100 were lost in combat.

They were equipped with two 105mm (4") cannon, three AA mountings (one on each side of the bridge and one in the X turret position, minesweeping gear or mines. I chose to equip mine with a typical load out of two 20mm autocannon and one twin 37mm.

The ships were used for minesweeping (duh!), minelaying, convoy escorts, sub-chasers, torpedo boats (M43) and as patrol boats.

Size Comparison


The Heller 1:400 model alongside a Warlord Games 1:300 S-Boat.

The Fleet

My Kriegsmarine collection in 1:300 to 1:400 grows: eat lead, Tommy!

Cruel Seas: Scotia Grendel LCI (S)

The Landing Craft Infantry (Small) was a small ship designed to carry troops from their base and unload them directly onto a beach after it had been stormed using small assault landing craft. They were never intended to lead an assault.

You can find out more about these craft here.

 This Scotia-Grendel model is from their high quality Ship-to-Shore 1:300 range of landing craft, designed to compliment their microarmour models.

It has a resin hull with many metal small-detail components. I always find these a pain to put together but the results are excellent.

The model is clearly based on a model in the Imperial War Museum of LCI(S) 507. This example was armed with two 20 mm autocannon for defence. Later models had four or even five 20 mm AA guns (plus whatever their crews could 'acquire' and weld on).

I added an extra 20 mm on the bow and a twin MG aft from spare bits.

Just to illustrate how small these craft really were, here is one alongside a Warlord Games plastic Vosper MTB in the same scale.

Final another IWM photo of the real 507.

Formula Ork

Da Ork racing car has a few features not found on a Ferrari.

Da warp jump drive to aid in overtaking, or example. Well there's nothing in the rulebook preventing warp drives.

Da grinda is very useful when a backmarker fails to give way. No one's complained yet, well no one whose been through the grinda, hurr, hurr, hurr.

Dis is a bit of da grey area in the rules but the shok attack gun and bombardment rockets are very useful if that dat Hamilton overtakes.

Da Boyz are stikklas for the rules: the car has not one but two wooden skid blocks - as well as some stickbombs.

T-23 Torpedoboot

This is the finished cut down waterline model: a 1:400 Heller T-23 Torpedoboot.

Torpedoboots were fast, small warships designed to fire torpedoes at capital ships. They led to the torpedo boat destroyer, designed to escort capital ships. The destroyers were larger and far better weapons platforms so became attackers as well as defenders.

The Germans kept the torpedo boat concept going through the interwar years as coastal defence ships. They were not particularly useful but gradually grew into the successful Type 39 Elbing Class, which were about the same size as a British WEP destroyer so they were reclassified as Flottentorpedoboot.

The T-23 was unusual that it survived the war.  She was completed in 1943 and served in the Bay of Biscay, escorting blockade runners. She took part in the Battle of Sept Isles and the Battle of the Bay of Biscay.

From 1944, T-23 operated in the Baltic.

She was armed with four 4.1" guns, five AA mounts with 20 mm and 37 mm guns, and two triple torpedo tubes. The ship could achieve 33 knots flat out.

My Cruel Seas Kriegsmarine fleet is growing .

The S-Boats are 1:300, the U-Boat 1:350, and the T-23 is 1:400.

Cutting Down A Full Hull Ship Kit

You know the problem: the only kit that covers the model you want in the scale you want is inevitably full hull. So what is the easiest way to convert it to a waterline model suitable for wargaming?

Do not take a saw to the plastic; that way leads to shattering.

Use a sharp knife to score the unmade hull sides along the waterline. Many kids have lines marking the waterline as painting guides... And these work equally well as scoring guides for the blade.

If not then mark the waterline with tape.  Airbrush masking tape is fine.

Use the knife lightly, repeating on a small length, say two inches, as many times as required. Resist the urge to press hard and take your time. You are trying to score the plastic,  not cut it.

When a section is suitably scored, gently bend the plastic to snap it along the score line. Repeat along the hull half until it is broken in two.

You should have two halves as above .

Cement the two hull halves to the decking and check for rigidity. It should be fine but add supports as needed.

The underside should be pretty square but there will be slight notches and bumps.

Now sand down the model base on a flat surface, gently pushing the model across the sandpaper. Resist the urge to push hard.

The final waterline model should sit neatly on a flat surface.